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Island of The Blue Dolphins Bookfiles
Island of The Blue Dolphins Bookfiles
A READING GUIDE TO
Island of the
Blue Dolphins
by Scott O’Dell
Patricia McHugh
Copyright © 2003 by Scholastic Inc.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 03 04 05 06 07
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About Scott O’Dell
Wherever the family moved, though, they were never far from the
Pacific Ocean or Los Angeles. “That is why, I suppose,” said
O’Dell, “the sound of the sea and the feel of the frontier are in my
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books.” Many of O’Dell’s experiences on the California coast later
became part of Karana’s story in Island of the Blue Dolphins.
Scott O’Dell was not the name the author was given at birth. In
fact, it was quite the opposite: He was named Odell Scott! When
he was a young adult, a typesetter accidentally switched the two
words. O’Dell decided that he liked the new name better and
legally changed his name.
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wrote seven altogether, including novels, a guidebook to
Southern California, and a book about children’s art.
During both World War I and World War II, O’Dell was a soldier,
though he never actually fought in either war. He was still in
training when World War I ended, and he was stationed in the
United States during World War II.
When O’Dell wrote Island of the Blue Dolphins, his first children’s
book, he was already in his early sixties. At a point in life when
many people’s careers are winding down, he was just beginning a
second career as a children’s book author. It was a career that
would quickly bring him praise from around the world.
Six years after Island of the Blue Dolphins came out, O’Dell
published his second children’s book, The King’s Fifth. The next
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year his third, The Black Pearl, appeared. The King’s Fifth and
The Black Pearl were both named Newbery Honor books. Newbery
Honor awards are given to books that the Newbery committee
thinks are excellent but that did not win the main Newbery
Medal. O’Dell received a third Newbery Honor in 1971 for Sing
Down the Moon.
After Island of the Blue Dolphins, O’Dell never wrote another adult
book. He wrote a total of twenty-six children’s books and began
two more that his wife, Elizabeth Hall, finished after his death.
After living most of his life on the West Coast, O’Dell moved to the
East Coast in 1975. His wife had accepted a job in New York, and
they moved to Westchester County, north of New York City.
There, they bought a home on a lake. When he was not writing,
O’Dell liked to plant trees and grow vegetables. He also pursued
his lifelong passions for traveling, sailing, and fishing.
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In 1982, O’Dell began a project to encourage others to write
about history. He established the Scott O’Dell Award for
Historical Fiction. Each year since 1984 this annual award of
$5,000 has been given to the author of the best book of historical
fiction for children.
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How Island of the Blue Dolphins
Came About
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In the early 1800s, the Indians of San Nicolas were fighting with
Russian and Aleut sea otter hunters. The Aleuts were natives of
the Aleutian Islands that lie off the mainland of Alaska.
San Nicolas Island lies off the coast of what is now called
California. When the Lost Woman was left behind in 1835, this
land belonged to Mexico. At that time, the California region was
inhabited mostly by Native Americans and by missionaries. The
missionaries were there to settle the land and teach the Native
Americans about Christianity. Up and down the coast of
California, the missionaries had developed small communities,
called missions.
By the time the Lost Woman was rescued, all traces of her tribe
had disappeared. No one could be found who spoke her
language, so she could not tell people much about her
experiences alone on the island. She died just seven weeks after
coming to the mission, probably because she could not adjust to
her new diet. The people at the mission, who never learned her
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real name, gave her the Christian name Juana Maria and buried
her at the mission.
O’Dell knew the Lost Woman’s story for many years before he
began to write about it. He first heard her story when he read a
short magazine article about her in 1920. He found the story
interesting but did nothing with it. As the years passed, he
sometimes came across other mentions of the story. What finally
inspired him to write about the Lost Woman? Hunters did.
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O’Dell knew the Channel Islands and the coast of California from
his many experiences there as a child and as an adult. As a boy,
O’Dell had hunted for devilfish along the rocky coast with his
friends. Another childhood adventure became the basis for
Karana’s journey by canoe. O’Dell once described his adventure
this way: “Many summer days we left the landlocked world and
went to sea. How? Each of us on a separate log. The logs had
been towed into the harbor in great rafts—from Oregon. They
were twelve feet long or longer, rough with splinters and covered
with tar.” They might have been just logs, but to O’Dell and his
friends, “they were proud canoes.”
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standing and fell at my feet. I put my hand on his chest. I could
feel his heart beating, very slowly . . . and then no more.”
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Chapter Charter: Questions to
Guide Your Reading
Chapter 1
• Do you think that Karana is a responsible person? What about
Ramo? How much do you think their ages affect whether or not
they are responsible?
• How would you describe the relationship between the islanders
and the Aleuts as the story begins?
Chapter 2
• What do the islanders do that contributes to bad feelings
between them and the Aleuts?
Chapter 3
• Why might Karana’s people need to know exactly when the
hunters will leave?
Chapter 4
• If Chief Chowig had not argued with the hunters about
payment, what do you think would have happened that day?
What might have happened the next time the hunters came to
the island?
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Chapter 5
• Why do you think Kimki decides that the tribe should leave the
island?
Chapter 6
• Why do you think Nanko teases the islanders instead of telling
them the good news right away? Can you think of a time when
you’ve done that?
Chapter 7
• The islanders are leaving their home forever on a strange ship.
How might you feel if you had to move away from your home?
Is there one special thing you would never leave behind, as
Ramo will not leave his spear?
• Both Chief Matasaip and Karana have to make difficult
decisions about going back for Ramo. The chief decides not to
turn back; Karana decides to do so. Do you think either person
made the right decision? What would you have done?
Chapter 8
• After Ramo dies, Karana vows to kill all of the wild dogs on the
island. Does this seem fair to you?
Chapter 9
• Why do you think Karana burns down the village of Ghalas-at?
Would you have made the same decision? Why or why not?
• Karana decides to disobey the law that forbids women from
making weapons. Can you think of a situation in which you
might have to disobey a law to save your life?
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Chapter 10
• Karana undertakes a dangerous journey when she leaves the
island by canoe. Why do you think she feels desperate enough
to risk her life this way?
Chapter 11
• Why do you think Karana decides that she will never again
leave the island unless the white men come for her?
• As Karana chooses a location for her new home, what are some
of the issues she has to consider? Do you think she chooses
wisely?
Chapter 12
• As Karana builds her new home, how does she protect herself
from animals and from the weather? Why do you think she
tries to make her life more comfortable?
Chapter 13
• Karana sees two large male sea elephants fighting. Do you
think the younger or the older animal will win? Why?
Chapter 14
• What do you think is different about Karana’s second home,
compared with her first?
Chapter 15
• Why does Karana decide she must kill the leader of the dog
pack? What changes her mind?
• Why do you think the leader of the dog pack begins to trust
her, rather than wants to harm her?
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Chapter 16
• Karana’s life changes after she befriends Rontu. Have you ever
had a pet or a human friend who has changed your life? If so,
can you describe how?
Chapter 17
• When Rontu goes back to the wild dogs, Karana doesn’t help
him fight. Have you ever had a pet that needed your help? If so,
what happened? Were you able to help it?
Chapter 18
• In this chapter, Karana describes a spring season when she is
especially happy. Would you have been happy in her situation
during that spring?
Chapter 19
• Why does Karana want to spear the devilfish? Why do you
think she later decides never to hunt one again?
Chapter 20
• As Karana explores Black Cave, what does she discover there?
How does it make her feel? If you were Karana, would you ever
return to Black Cave? Why or why not?
• When the Aleuts come, what does Karana do to hide from
them?
Chapter 21
• Do you think Karana is more afraid of the Aleut girl or of the
hunters?
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• Do you think that the Aleut girl is afraid of Karana? Why or
why not?
Chapter 22
• How do we know that Karana has come to trust Tutok?
• Why do you think Karana cooks food for Tutok even though
she knows Tutok is gone?
Chapter 23
• What does it mean that Karana eventually gives the otter a
name, Mon-a-nee?
• Why do you think the otter did not stay in the pool?
Chapter 24
• As time passes, Karana’s feelings about killing animals change.
How did she once feel, and how does she feel now? Why do you
think her feelings change?
Chapter 25
• Karana loses her best friend when Rontu dies. Describe how it
might feel to lose a favorite animal.
Chapter 26
• Why do you think Karana tries to catch the wild dog that is
Rontu’s son?
Chapter 27
• Before the earthquake, what are some of the signs Karana
notices that something abnormal is happening to the sea and
to the island?
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Chapter 28
• The author almost never uses words that describe how Karana
is feeling. We can often guess, though, by how he describes
what Karana is doing. From his descriptions, what do you
think Karana is feeling when she first sees the ship? when she
realizes that she doesn’t know whose ship it is? when she
hears the man calling her? when she realizes that the ship has
left without her?
Chapter 29
• The white men want Karana to change into clothes like theirs.
Why do you think they do this?
• Do you think Karana will have a better life after she leaves the
island? What might her life be like?
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Plot: What’s Happening?
The men of Ghalas-at race to meet the ship. Forty Aleuts and
their Russian captain, named Orlov, have come to hunt sea
otters. Orlov says that they will pay the islanders with jewelry
and metal spearheads. Karana’s father, Chief Chowig, does not
trust the hunters. Still, he agrees to let them hunt. Karana’s
sister, Ulape, declares that one of the Aleuts is a girl, but no one
believes her.
When the Aleuts are done hunting, they argue with the islanders
about payment. The Aleuts and the islanders fight on the beach,
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and many island men die. The tribe is devastated. “There was no
woman who had not lost a father or a husband, a brother or a
son.”
The new tribal chief, Kimki, travels across the sea to find a new
place for the tribe. After he leaves, Matasaip becomes chief.
A year later, another ship sails into the harbor. Kimki has sent
the white men and their ship to bring the tribe to their new
home.
Karana does not believe him. She dives back into the sea and
swims to shore. She hugs Ramo and promises that they will be
rescued soon.
After Ramo’s death, Karana decides that she can no longer live in
the village of empty huts that remind her “of all the people who
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were dead and those who were gone.” She burns each house in
the village until “there were only ashes left to mark the village of
Ghalas-at.”
After the dogs threaten her again, Karana decides to leave the
island by canoe. She is not really afraid, she says, for whatever
might happen to her means “far less than the thought of staying
on the island alone, without a home or companions, pursued by
wild dogs, where everything reminded me of those who were dead
and those who had gone away.”
Karana paddles out to sea, but the old canoe is leaking and
starts to split apart. Karana realizes that she must turn back to
the island, though she is uncertain if she will make it. When a
swarm of dolphins swims near her canoe, they lift her spirits and
give her the strength to paddle home.
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Grateful to be alive, Karana settles into life on the island. She
builds a home on the headland and furnishes it. She makes new,
stronger weapons to hunt the wild dogs. She plans to kill a sea
elephant for its sharp teeth, which she can use as spear points.
Instead, she witnesses a terrible fight between two sea elephants
that leads to one of the sea elephants’ death.
Karana stumbles and badly injures her leg as she watches the
fight. She hides from the wild dogs in a cave and, after she
recovers, makes it into a second shelter.
Karana makes spear points from the teeth of the dead sea
elephant and hunts the wild dogs. She wounds the leader of the
pack, a big dog that she thinks must have come with the Aleuts.
When she follows the wounded dog into the brush, she is
surprised to find that she does not want to kill him, though she
is not sure why. She nurses the dog back to health and, when he
is better, names him Rontu.
Next, Karana decides to fix one of the tribe’s old canoes. As she
does so, Rontu plays nearby. Now Karana realizes how lonely she
had been before she “had Rontu to talk to.” Karana and Rontu
use the canoe to explore the island’s caves, where they hunt a
giant devilfish and find ancient figures her ancestors once made.
Then one day the Aleuts return. This time, Karana sees for
herself that they have a girl with them. Though Karana hides,
the Aleut girl discovers her. Slowly the two become friends.
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The girls visit together for many days before the Aleuts leave.
Afterward, Karana listens to the many familiar sounds of the
island. “But suddenly,” she says to herself, “as I thought of
Tutok, the island seemed very quiet.”
Karana goes down to the beach and sees the dead and dying
otters the Aleuts have left behind. She is able to save one otter,
who becomes her friend Mon-a-nee. As time passes, her pet
birds, Tainor and Lurai, have two baby birds, and Karana nurses
an injured young gull. Karana decides that she will never kill
another otter, cormorant, seal, dog, or sea elephant again. Even if
her tribespeople were to come back and laugh at her, she would
not change her mind.
Rontu dies, but Karana soon catches and tames a wild dog that
is Rontu’s son and names him Rontu-Aru.
Two years later, the same ship returns. Karana knows that this
time she will leave on the ship. She carefully prepares, dressing
in her finest clothes and jewelry. The white men greet Karana in
a strange language. Though she doesn’t understand what they
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are saying, the words are sweet to her. “They were the sound of a
human voice. There is no sound like this in all the world.”
As the ship sails for the mainland, Karana says to the reader,
“For a long time I stood and looked back at the Island of the Blue
Dolphins.” She thinks of all the animals she has left behind “and
of all the happy days.” Dolphins accompany the ship far out to
sea. Her little birds chirp and Rontu-Aru sits beside Karana as
she sails toward her new life.
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Setting/Time and Place:
Where in the World Are We?
Time
We see that the story takes place when the islanders are just
beginning to be affected by outside cultures. Hunters have been
to the Island of the Blue Dolphins only once before in the
islanders’ memory. Also, the white men helping the islanders are
missionaries from the Santa Barbara Mission. Missions were the
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main white settlements in California from the late 1700s to the
mid-1800s. The hunters and the white men arrive in sailing
ships of the sort that were used a hundred years or more ago.
The Aleuts and the Russians have tools and objects that are
almost as simple as the ones the Indians use: They fish for otters
with spears, and as payment they offer beads and iron
spearheads.
Place
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The island in the title of the book is based on the real island of
San Nicolas. San Nicolas is one of the Channel Islands that lie off
the coast of California, southwest of Santa Barbara and Los
Angeles. Just as O’Dell describes it in the novel, San Nicolas was
once home to American Indians and was a hunting place for the
Aleuts and the Russians who came in search of sea otters. The
island is now used by the U.S. Navy, and the public is not
allowed to visit.
O’Dell loved the ocean and island life. He had lived near the sea
for many years and had lived on an island for part of his
childhood. So he knew many details of island life and used them
to help establish the setting.
Our island is two leagues long and one league wide, and if
you were standing on one of the hills that rise in the middle
of it, you would think that it looked like a fish. Like a dolphin
lying on its side, with its tail pointing toward the sunrise, its
nose pointing to the sunset, and its fins making reefs and the
rocky ledges along the shore. [A league is about three miles
long, or five kilometers.]
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trail to the shore; the women gather on the mesa. Karana moves
through heavy brush and down the ravine to the sea cliffs, where
she hides in the toyon bushes.
As the story unfolds, we can see island life through its many
other creatures, too, from wild dogs, sea elephants, and devilfish
to red foxes, sea gulls, and pelicans.
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their food. Though O’Dell does not go into such detail about the
Aleuts and the white men, he tells us enough about their
appearance, equipment, and habits to make them seem real.
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Themes/Layers of Meaning:
Is That What It Really Means?
S cott O’Dell often said that the two most important themes of
Island of the Blue Dolphins were forgiveness and respect for
all life. The book has other themes, too, including the themes of
survival and of the place of girls and women in society.
Forgiveness
The first enemy Karana forgives is not a person, but a dog. Rontu
is an enemy because he is the leader of the dog pack that kills
Ramo and threatens Karana. He is also an enemy because he is
an Aleut dog, and the Aleuts are Karana’s enemies.
After Ramo dies, Karana vows that “some day I would go back
and kill the wild dogs in the cave. I would kill all of them.” This is
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a promise of revenge as much as one of self-defense. She wants
to kill them not only to punish them for killing Ramo but also
because they threaten her.
Karana kills some of the dogs with the weapons she makes. She
decides that she has to be sure to kill the leader, because he has
made the pack bolder and more dangerous.
Karana wounds Rontu, but she finds that she is reluctant to kill
him. She says, “Why I did not send the arrow I cannot say. . . .
The big dog lay there and did not move and this may be the
reason. If he had gotten up I would have killed him.”
Karana feeds the dog and nurses him back to health. She does
this out of a sense of duty rather than because she cares about
the dog. “I had no thought that he would live and I did not care.”
In the years before the story begins, the Aleuts had come to hunt
on the Island of the Blue Dolphins and had treated the islanders
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poorly. Karana’s tribespeople have distrusted the Aleuts ever
since. When the Aleuts return at the beginning of the story, they
cause bad feelings again by cheating the islanders. The two
groups fight and many men die.
But when the Aleuts come to the island a third time, when
Karana is alone there, Karana learns that an enemy can become
a friend. This happens when she gets to know one Aleut, a girl
named Tutok.
When Karana first sees Tutok, Karana almost attacks her with a
spear. Karana surprises herself when she does not throw the
spear at Tutok, “for she was one of the Aleuts who had killed my
people on the beach of Coral Cove.”
When O’Dell wrote Island of the Blue Dolphins in the late 1950s,
it was one of the first children’s books to suggest that animals
deserve to be treated with the same respect as people. O’Dell
loved animals, though he did not always treat them well as a
child. When he grew up he was ashamed of his behavior and
wanted to help others learn to treat them properly.
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Karana slowly becomes more and more sympathetic toward
animals. She plans to kill a sea elephant for its sharp teeth, but
instead she is injured as she watches a bloody battle between
two sea elephants. Hunting begins to lose some of its appeal.
Karana has her first real change of heart about animals when
she befriends Rontu. Now she begins to see some animals as
individual creatures and potential friends. She soon makes pets
of the birds Tainor and Lurai as well.
When Karana tries to kill the giant devilfish, it fights back hard,
hurting both her and Rontu. Karana decides never to try to kill a
devilfish again. She is beginning to respect even the animals that
threaten her. Still, she then kills ten cormorants to make a
feather skirt.
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Karana must be practical, of course. She must still eat, and she
does continue to catch fish and gather shellfish. The author
doesn’t discuss how Karana will satisfy her other needs. We can
imagine how ourselves: She could, for instance, make use of
animals that have already died, or she could substitute non-
animal materials for the ones she would have taken from
animals.
At the end of the story, the white men who rescue Karana ask
her to show them where they can find otters to hunt. Karana
will not do it. “I shook my head and acted as though I did not
understand.” Even though Karana is grateful that the men have
rescued her, she will not repay them by helping them kill
animals.
Survival
Karana has many skills because in her culture children are very
involved in the tasks of daily living. She knows how to gather and
prepare food and how to make clothing, for instance. But after
Karana is left alone on the island, she must do many more things
that adults once did for her. She has to make a shelter to protect
herself from animals and the weather. She has to improvise tools,
repair the canoes, and make weapons.
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Karana also learns that survival means more than just keeping
yourself alive. She must take care of her needs for friendship,
comfort, and pleasure, too.
Alone on the island, Karana struggles with her society’s rules for
women when she needs weapons to defend herself against the
wild dogs. In her tribe, women are not allowed to make weapons.
Karana asks herself what will happen if she breaks the law:
“Would the four winds blow in from the four directions of the
world and smother me as I made the weapons? Or would the
earth tremble, as many said, and bury me beneath its falling
rocks?. . .”
Despite her fear, Karana makes weapons and uses them. When
she is not punished, Karana realizes that the law was unfair to
women and that it made sense for her to disobey it.
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Characters: Who Are
These People, Anyway?
People
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white men men who come to take the islanders to
the mainland
Father Gonzales missionary Karana meets after she leaves
the island
Animals
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After her father and many other island men die, Karana must
become even more responsible. She works harder than ever for
the tribe and struggles to care for Ramo without her father’s
help.
Karana is brave. She first proves her bravery when she dives
back into the sea to go back to Ramo, knowing that he will be
frightened and in danger alone on the island. Karana will have
many more chances to show her bravery, from fighting the wild
dogs to trying to cross the sea alone in a canoe.
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or even kill them to protect herself. Later, after she befriends the
dog, Rontu, and the Aleut, Tutok, she realizes that enemies can
be forgiven and can become friends.
When the boat comes to take the Indians from the island, Ramo,
excitable as ever, “hopped along far in front with one of our
baskets.” But “before long he ran back to say that he had
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forgotten his fishing spear.” Karana refuses to let him get his
spear. Ramo disobeys her, and the ship leaves without him.
Rontu: Rontu is the leader of the pack of wild dogs that kill
Ramo. Karana first sees him as she carries Ramo’s body back to
the village. The dog is “a big gray dog with long curling hair and
yellow eyes.” He has thick fur around his neck. Because Karana
had never seen him before the Aleuts came, she guesses that he
is an Aleut dog. The dog is much larger than the native dogs,
which all have short hair and brown eyes. Karana thinks that the
pack has grown even bolder since the Aleut dog became their
leader.
The dog pack threatens Karana many times. Since the Aleut dog
is their leader, Karana decides that she must kill him. Still,
Karana sometimes sees him watching her quietly, and her special
awareness of him lets us know that he will be important to the
story.
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spread as if he were ready to spring, his yellow eyes narrowed to
slits.” After Karana strikes him with an arrow, he runs off into
the brush.
Tutok visits many times before the Aleuts leave the island. Tutok
never returns, but Karana does not forget her or her kindness.
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Thinking about the characters
• Is Karana like other twelve-year-olds you know? Do you like or
admire her? When she is older, how has she changed?
• How would you describe Ramo? Does he seem like a typical
six-year-old? Is he someone you would like or admire?
• Why do you think Ramo adapts so easily to being Karana’s
dog, after being a wild dog?
• If Tutok had been a less friendly person, what might have
happened when she and Karana met?
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Opinion: What Have Other
People Thought About
Island of the Blue Dolphins?
Winning the Newbery Medal for Island of the Blue Dolphins was a
great honor for Scott O’Dell. The Newbery Medal was the first and
most important award the book won, but it was not the only one.
Since then, Island of the Blue Dolphins has won at least twelve
other awards from national and international groups.
Book critics loved the book, too. A writer for The New York Times
called it “haunting” and said that O’Dell’s writing style was
“beautifully fitted to his subject.” A critic writing in The Times of
London called it “a novel of the highest excellence.”
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will include a section that helps explain what is real and what
comes from his imagination, as O’Dell does in his Author’s Note
at the end of Island of the Blue Dolphins.
Scott O’Dell used even more facts than the ones he mentions in
his Author’s Note. For instance, many details about the islanders’
everyday lives came from facts about the real Channel Island
Indians.
Many sad things happen in Island of the Blue Dolphins, from the
deaths of Chowig, Ramo, and the other tribespeople to Karana’s
loss of Rontu, Tutok, and, finally, her island home. Is this too
much sadness in a story for children? Some people think so.
Others say that the sadness is brightened by Karana’s brave
spirit, her exciting adventures, and her final success in leaving
the island to be with other people again.
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Thinking about what others think about
Island of the Blue Dolphins
• Why do you think Island of the Blue Dolphins has won so many
awards? What makes it special? Did you like it as much as
other people seem to like it?
• Do you like historical fiction? When you read historical fiction,
do you want to know which part is fact and which part is
fiction?
• Overall, did the novel seem too sad to you? Or were only some
parts of the novel too sad? If so, which ones?
49
Glossary
50
parley to discuss something you disagree about
pelt an animal skin with the fur or hair still attached
pitch a dark, sticky substance made from wood or other
materials
planks thick wooden boards
ponder to think carefully about
ravine a deep, narrow valley that is smaller than a canyon
rites acts done for a ceremony
shirkers people who avoid doing what they should do
shrouded covered
sinews tough cords of tissue that connect muscles to bones or
other body parts
snare trap
spit a narrow strip of land that juts out into the water
stunted has not grown properly
trinkets jewelry worth very little
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Scott O’Dell on Writing
“
W riting is hard,” Scott O’Dell once said, “harder than
digging a ditch, and it requires patience.” The most
important part of writing, he told people, is to discipline yourself
to sit down and do the work.
O’Dell’s daily work habits changed over time. When he first began
to write, he wrote all day, from 7 A.M. until 5 P.M., and he typed
his work on an electric typewriter. Later, he did most of his
writing in the morning, and he wrote with a pen on a yellow pad
of paper.
52
During this latter part of his life, he was already awake and
thinking about his writing before dawn. His routine, he once
said, was “to lie in bed between sleeping and waking, cultivating
my subconscious mind, the mind that we dream with. I go over
what I’m going to write that day, not line by line but rather
thoroughly.”
Between 5 A.M. and 5:30 A.M., O’Dell usually began writing at his
desk. He wrote until noon or so. At that time, O’Dell always
stopped in the middle of a paragraph that was going well so that
it was easy to get right back into his work the next day.
Sometimes he went back to writing for a few hours later in the
afternoon. But whether he went back to work or not, the story
was always on his mind.
When he had the time, O’Dell loved meeting his readers and
writing to them. He received thousands of letters from children
and considered this one of the best parts of his work. He loved
children’s enthusiasm and honesty, and even appreciated their
occasionally critical comments.
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For aspiring writers
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You Be the Author!
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You can also learn more about the Aleut Indians. The Aleuts
originally came from the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska.
They also had a fascinating culture during the time when Island
of the Blue Dolphins takes place. Research and write about the
Aleuts during the 1800s, when they sailed to the Channel Islands
to hunt for sea otters.
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Activities
• Map the island: Scott O’Dell describes the Island of the Blue
Dolphins so vividly that you can draw a map using his
descriptions. Try it yourself. See if you can figure out the correct
locations for places such as Coral Cove, the headland where
Karana builds her house, the village of Ghalas-at, the cave that
Karana uses as a second shelter, the place where the Aleuts
camp, Black Cave, and Tall Rock.
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Karana in all her finery as she greets the white men who have
come to take her from the island.
• Discover the wild animals that live near you: You might
be surprised by how many wild animals live near you—even if
you live in a large town or city. To find out about them, you can
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begin by talking with a local librarian, a veterinarian, a parks
department wildlife expert, or an animal-shelter assistant. What
you do with the information you find is up to you: Use it to make
a poster illustrating the local wildlife, write a report for school, or
make a booklet to give to your friends. You may be inspired to
volunteer with an organization that helps protect wildlife.
• Read the books that won the Scott O’Dell Award: Scott
O’Dell developed the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction to
encourage people to write and read historical fiction. He wanted
to inspire children to be more interested in history, which is so
important to understanding the world. Besides that, it’s exciting!
Read some of the books that won the Scott O’Dell Award, and see
if you enjoy historical fiction as much as O’Dell did. You will find
a list of these award-winning books in the Related Reading
section at the back of this book.
• Watch the movie: Island of the Blue Dolphins was made into
a movie in 1964. You can buy it or borrow it from the library or
video store. As you watch it, think about how the movie is similar
to the book and how it is different. Which do you like better, and
why?
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Related Reading
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Thunder Rolling in the Mountains (with Elizabeth Hall) (1992)
The Treasure of Topo-el-Bampo (1972)
The 290 (1976)
Venus Among the Fishes (with Elizabeth Hall) (1995)
Zia (1976)
Movies
The Black Pearl (1978)
Island of the Blue Dolphins (1964), available on VHS
Survival stories—fiction
Brian’s Winter by Gary Paulsen
The Cay by Theodore Taylor
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
Nory Ryan’s Song by Patricia Reilly Giff
The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare
(also an O’Dell Award winner)
Toughboy and Sister by Kirkpatrick Hill
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1992 Stepping on the Cracks by Mary Downing Hahn
1993 Morning Girl by Michael Dorris
1994 Bull Run by Paul Fleischman
1995 Under the Blood-Red Sun by Graham Salisbury
1996 The Bomb by Theodore Taylor
1997 Jip, His Story by Katherine Patterson
1998 Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
1999 Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule by Harriette Robinet
2000 Two Suns in the Sky by Miriam Bat-Ami
2001 The Art of Keeping Cool by Janet Taylor Lisle
2002 The Land by Mildred D. Taylor
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Bibliography
Books
Gallo, Donald R., comp. and ed. Speaking for Ourselves:
Autobiographical Sketches by Notable Authors of Books for
Young Adults. Urbana, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of
English, 1990.
Harris, Laurie Lanzen, exec. ed. Biography Today Author Series,
Vol. 2. Detroit, Mich.: Omnigraphics, Inc., 1996.
Heinrichs, Ann. The California Missions. Minneapolis, Minn.:
Compass Point Books, 2002.
Kingman, Lee, ed. Newbery and Caldecott Medal Books:
1956–1965. Boston: Horn Book, 1965.
O’Dell, Scott. Island of the Blue Dolphins. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1960.
Russell, David L. Scott O’Dell. New York: Twayne Publishers,
1999.
Townsend, John Rowe. A Sense of Story: Essays on Contemporary
Writers for Children. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1971.
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The New York Times Book Review, New York, N.Y., March 27,
1960, pp. 40–41.
The New York Times, New York, N.Y., April 15, 1984, p. WC 27.
Videocassette
A Visit with Scott O’Dell, Houghton Mifflin Author and Artist
Series, 13 min., Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983, videocassette.
Web sites
Scott O’Dell Web Page:
www.scottodell.com
Internet School Library Media Center:
falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/odell.htm
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History:
www.sbnature.org/chumash/lowom.htm
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